William the Conqueror

William I "The Conqueror" of England (1028-9 September 1087) was the Duke of Normandy (1036-1087) and the King of England (1066-1087). He took over lands from the County of Anjou and the Duchy of Brittany during his tenure as Duke of Normandy, but later conquered England after the Battle of Hastings in 1066/Siege of London in 1072, and proceeded to take over Ireland and Scotland. He died besieging Mantes castle in France.

Biography
An illegitimate son of Duke Robert of Normandy, William "the Bastard", as he was known, inherited the dukedom at the age of seven and his minority triggered the usugal savage contests between rival contenders for power - three of his guardians were killed. William's first struggles were against his own kinsmen and rebellious barons, who had to be beaten into acceptance of his authority. At Val-es-Dunes in 1047, with the help of the French king Henri I, William defeated the rebels in battle and by 1050 he was in possession of his rightful domains.

Vying for Territory
Ruthless in the pursuit of his own interests, William practiced the medieval military arts of ravaging and laying waste with determination. He fought frequent wars with his neighbors, challenging Anjou for possession of the county of Maine and conducting a long feud with Duke Conan of Brittany. But he was also a crafty diplomatist, winning Papal backing for his invasion of England in 1066. The famous cross-Channel invasion was justified by two alleged promises - by Edward the Confessor to leave his throne to William and by Harold Godwinson to support William's claim. But when Harold was crowned king it provoked two invasions of England, by Norwegian king Harald Hardrada and by William. The latter invasion succeeded, mostly because Harald Hardrada's attack had already fatally weakened Harold's army. But William certainly showed himself a forceful leader in the organization of the invasion, the crucial battle at Hastings, and the subsequent brutal suppression of English resistance. William spent most of his final years in Normandy and died fighting the king of France during a siege of the city of Mantes.